Top 1000 Songs #10-#1

#10 - "Search And Destroy" - The Stooges - Raw Power - #4/5 - The best punk song of the pre-punk era, "Search" shreds right from the beginning with the craziest lyrics that had ever been heard at that point and some of the best ever. Wild-man lead singer Iggy Pop tears the song apart with his vocal performance that merges perfectly with the wicked guitar riff that drives the song.

#9 - "Wish You Were Here" - Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here - #14/14 - Floyd's best song featured some of the best lyrics of the classic rock era even though there were only two verses. Surprisingly, the song isn't on one of the band's two greatest albums, but was the centerpiece of the under-rated album of the same name.

#8 - "Lust For Life" - Iggy Pop - T.V. Eye - #5/5 - Before being ridiculously used in ads for the Carnival cruise line and appropriately in Trainspotting, "Lust For Life" was known as one of the craziest songs of the classic rock era, starting off with the greatest drum performance in rock n roll history and driving to an incredibly bold chorus. Iggy turns in yet another world-changing vocal performance.

#7 - "Immigrant Song" - Led Zeppelin - Led Zeppelin III - #24/24 - Zeppelin's greatest guitar riff merges with Robert Plant's sent-from-hell vocal performance to create the greatest example of rock n roll distilled down into a short blast of panic-inducing terror. The shriek at the beginning of the song could scare the hell out of you if you didn't know it was coming.

#6 - "Fortunate Son" - Creedence Clearwater Revival - Willy And The Poor Boys - #5/5 - The greatest protest song ever written, John Fogerty sums up the biggest problems of American society and does it in a song containing one of the most unforgettable guitar riffs ever.

#5 - "Radio Radio" - Elvis Costello - This Year's Model - #11/11 - Following the greatest protest song is the greatest piece of cultural commentary in rock n roll history as Elvis uses a sweet vocal performance and a great guitar riff to tear the music industry to shreds. The song also seems to gain significance with each passing year as the themes Elvis is singing about only seem to get more and more obvious.

#4 - "Tangled Up In Blue" - Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks - #15/15 - Playing out an entire novel's worth of storyline in a medium-length song, Bob Dylan tells a sad story of lost love that sounds like an epic poem set to music. Dylan was never better than on this mid-career classic.

#3 - "Paint It Black" - The Rolling Stones - Flashpoint - #19/20 - While the Beatles were still singing about love and other happy topics, "Paint It Black" was dealing with psychosis and depression. The song is bleak and brilliant in it's lyrics and it's music. The drums and guitar are particularly sharp in this one and Jagger turns in some of his best lyrics...

#2 - "Sympathy For The Devil" - The Rolling Stones - Beggar's Banquet - #20/20 - ... but not his best lyrics, which were on display in this song which details the history of human events behind the figure who seems most responsible for them, Satan. The song's lyrics are accompanied by an almost evil drum solo that sets the tone up perfectly for the wild-man howling that would come towards the end of the song.

#1 - "Imagine" - John Lennon - Imagine - #5/5 - The most moving and insightful lyrics in rock n roll history merge with a sweeping Beatlesesque accompaniment as Lennon painted a portrait of a perfect world and how we could achieve it. The song is pure pefection from start to finish and ends on a hopeful note that maybe mankind could straighten itself out if they only dared to try.